North Korea has confirmed it will not give up its status as a nuclear-armed state, while Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Pyongyang to reinforce the relationship between the two key allied nations.
The North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said North Korea will never retreat from its status as a nuclear-armed country and emphasized that the Pyongyang government will not tolerate external pressure or threats.
This statement came just one day before President Xi Jinping's visit to North Korea on Monday to hold a summit with Kim Jong Un, marking the first visit by a Chinese leader to North Korea in nearly seven years.
The visit takes place as Beijing seeks to strengthen ties with Pyongyang, which is China's only formal treaty ally.
Kim Yo Jong also criticized U.S. claims that Xi Jinping and former U.S. President Donald Trump had agreed on the goal of denuclearizing North Korea during their summit in May, calling such reports false.
She stated that North Korea possesses accurate information about the situation and reaffirmed that the policy of enhancing nuclear deterrence capabilities for self-defense, as declared by the country's supreme leader, is a final, irreversible decision that must be pursued unconditionally.
Earlier the same week, North Korea unveiled a new nuclear material production facility, with Kim Jong Un calling for a significant expansion of the country's nuclear weapons stockpile.
Analysts view the unveiling of the new uranium enrichment plant as a strategic move by North Korea to bolster its bargaining power ahead of talks between Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping and to justify accelerating the country's nuclear weapons development.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that Kim Jong Un also toured a large weapons manufacturing facility and ordered the country's missile production capacity to increase by 2.5 times within five years, citing the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the official voice of the North Korean government.
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